a night of tlc – travel and living at its finest

i have a friend tonka who is from czech republic. as a young girl, she witnessed the fall of the berlin wall and the end of eastern european bloc. of all of a sudden overnight, all these places in eastern europe became open to the world.

she said something to me that i’ll always remember. traveling changes you – you see the world with a different set of eyes. don’t you think there is so much beauty in tonka’s statement?

as much as we want to – we can’t go to every corner of the world. we can however pick and select from the ones that appeal most to us – via tlc – travel and living channel.

last wednesday we went to the annual casbaa event at the four seasons. hosted by tlc – we were simply stars struck. samantha brown, janet hsieh and of course surreal gourmet chef bob blumer were the core attractions. man, it was a night to remember.

step into the world of tlc - the world of fine living, extraordinary experiences, interesting food and people and loads of good time

 

janet hsieh is so cute - she deserves an entire collage dedicated to her. i asked her - " do you feel like mickey mouse?" she said " i wished i was"

 

they had a lash bar and when my turn came - they asked me which one do you want? i said i want the most flirtatious ones. damn those eyelashes were heavy, it made me want to sleep. you know what they say- heavy lids. that was how i felt

 

meet natalie the camel

 

many men would like to be in bob blumer's shoes for sure!

 

posing for my own luggage tag!! my OWN!

 

don't you dare steal my luggage - my face is on my luggage tag!!

 

damn janet hsieh is tall. sugar and spice and everything thing nice. that's janet hsieh

 

sam, that color looks good on you!!

 

my husband - smiling ear to ear!!

 

this is the face why my husband married me. hahaha!

 

at the surreal gourmet booth. this plate of breakfast - was made out of sweets. hahahah - sweet bacon. totally bizarre!!!!

 

me attacking the dessert counter..

so where do you like to go next? actually, i would love to go to north korea. i find the hermit kingdom very intriguing. i am just so curious about how the whole country operates and with the succession of kim jung il to his son, it could either become worse or better. now, that is interesting.

the next tlc host that i would like to meet is bobby chinn. soon, i hope! soon!

lunch with sam

i have always liked the name sam. when i was young my imaginary friend’s name was sam. sam could have been the perfect name for a girl of a guy and i like the androgynous quality of the name.

and samantha brown fitted the bill. when i told my closest friends we were having lunch with samantha brown from tlc, some who don’t watch the channel asked – which one is that?

my best friend chris described her well – she is probably one of the most down- to – earth ones, there is nothing annoying about samantha brown.chris is spot on.

while we were walking up to the splendid bo innovation, there she was in the same lift as us. my eyes lit up and said – SAM!!!!!!

and she said oh -” i like your jacket”.

i said,” ya, i feel like michael jackson”.

” did you buy it here?”, she continued.

that’s sam. the girl you could fall in love with at first sight and the girl you will miss if she was gone for too long. and she has been on the road for 10 years

sam has a new friend for her roadtrips.. i told her, let's steam it. well a live crab isn't like a pet gold fish, you can't flush it down the toilet

samantha brown – the girl who gave us passport to europe, great hotels, passport to great weekends and passport to latin america.

i wonder if there are mornings where sam wakes up and wonder – where am i? which hotel? she is on the road 230 days a year and for all of you who think  you could do a better job, i’d suggest you think again. for her job – she has to sleep on ice ( eeeekkkkk!!!!), climb mountains, goes swimming in freezing water and the list goes on. she may have escaped the boring desk job but for sam – every day is a hard day’s work. i think it’s the type of job – if you don’t a good attitude and passion, you’d be a flash in a pan.

in her latest great weekend season – watch out for the episode on sundance, christmas in new york where she gave a polar bear an xmas gift, visiting haunted places down south ( can’t wait !)

sam asked me - do you know where i can buy these good morning towels. i told her, i'll sell it to her and her family at a fair mark up! hello, i am chinese. we like to make money... instead her team took her to GOD - that's probably a 1000% mark up..

thanks tlc for the invitation. the food at bo innovation was so delicious!! i’ve always wanted to check it out. terribly grateful for the opportunity. good company, good food… what more could i ask for?

this is the bo innovation xiao long biao. i could eat 100 of them!!! no 200 !! so yummy!

this banana dessert was superb!! the crust was so well made. i could eat it daily for the rest of my life..

my new friend boon..